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Annual insect fair draws thousands

Annual insect fair draws thousands

The Snider Agricultural Arena was the site of the Great Insect Fair on Saturday, Oct. 3. The annual community outreach and education event, organized by the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences' Department of Entomology, typically gathers more than 6,000 visitors according to organizers. Steve Jacobs, senior extension associate in entomology and fair coordinator, estimated that to have increased to around 10,000 for this year due to the extremely favorable weather.

Jenna, a youth visitor to the Great Insect Fair, feels the back of a millipede held by her mother, Martha Jordan, inside the Snider Agricultural Arena on Saturday, Oct. 3. Jenna was one of close to 10,000 visitors to the event, organized annually by the Penn State College of Agriculture's Department of Entomology. Dozens of insect exhibitors, collectors and experts, were on hand to teach members of the public about insects.

Caleb, a youth visitor to the Great Insect Fair in the Snider Agricultural Arena on Saturday, Oct. 3, grins as a large tarantula spider makes its way up his arm while his mother takes a picture on her cell phone at left.

A newly-molted cockroach is seen in its enclosure during the Great Insect Fair on Saturday, Oct. 3. The insect had shed its old skin just minutes before, and will slowly regain a dark color, according to its owner and entomologist Mary Gall, not pictured. For scale, the large piece of wood on the left is approximately the diameter of a pencil.

Great Insect Fair visitor Neil Gyer, right, gets a washable tattoo of an insect placed on his arm by Julie Green, a lab assistant from the Pennsylvania Departmet of Agriculture, on Saturday, Oct. 3, in the Snider Agricultural Arena. Tattoos were available at the event for visitors of all ages, and came in several insect species. The tattoo table was one of many activities open to the public during the event, sponsored by the Penn State College of Agriculture's Department of Entomology.

Attendees of the Department of Entomology's Great Insect Fair listen to local musical group Steve Buckalew and the Tussey Mountain Moonshiners outside the Snider Agricultural Arena on Saturday, Oct. 3. Event organizers estimated there were as many as 10,000 visitors throughout the event, which is in its 16th year. The event, which ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., was open to the public.

Cousins Josh and Mia ask questions of "The Bugmobile," a talking education car painted as a ladybug or lady beetle, one of the many attractions for youth at the Great Insect Fair held on Saturday, Oct. 3. Visitors could ask questions related to entomology and pest control and receive a live response from the "voice" of the car.

Logan, a youth participant at the Great Insect Fair, points at her favorite Australian Walking Stick specimen held by her father, Steve Soltis, center, and a volunteer on Saturday, Oct. 3, in the Snider Agricultural Arena. The event, run by the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences' Department of Entomology, is in its 16th year, drawing more than 6,000 visitors on average. This year, however, organizers estimated closer to 10,000 due to increased advertising and favorable weather.

The cockroach race was just one of many activities for visitors to enjoy at the Great Insect Fair, held in the Snider Agricultural Arena on Saturday, Oct. 3. Participants would choose a cockroach to race against others, and set the insect free into a tube in the hopes that it would reach the other end first.

Elena, a youth visitor to the Penn State Department of Entymology's Great Insect Fair, holds a monarch butterfly while her father Nathan Aungst takes her picture. The pair were inside the butterfly enclosure set up in the Snider Agricultural Arena as part of the Great Insect Fair held on Saturday, Oct. 3. An annual event held by the Penn State Department of Entomology, the Great Insect Fair draws upwards of 6,000 visitors each year from across Pennsylvania and the East Coast. This year, however, event organizers estimated close to 10,000 would check out the 6-hour-long event.

Dozens of visitors to the Great Insect Fair gather around Marty Irwin, center, as she releases a monarch butterfly into the wild outside the Snider Agricultural Arena on Saturday, Oct. 3. On Saturday, Irwin, a Master Gardener from Erie County and affiliated with Penn State Cooperative Extension, released 50 such butterflies, which she raised from their caterpillar stage. She has affixed tiny numbered tags to the wings of each of her butterflies as part of the Monarch Watch program of the University of Kansas. The tags allow anyone who finds such an insect to enter their location data to a database at monarchwatch.org in order to help researchers' monarch conservation efforts.